A group of international experts Sunday blasted Israeli authorities for denying their entry into the Gaza Strip for a mental health conference, urging the international community to end Israel's actual occupation.
"We strongly protest the decision by the Israeli authorities to deny entry permits to 120 international academics and concerned professionals" who had been invited to attend the "Siege and Mental Health, Walls vs. Bridges" conference originally scheduled in Gaza City, said Professor Alice Rothschild from U.S. Harvard University at a press conference.
The Oct. 27-28 conference, sponsored by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP) in cooperation with the Gaza office of World Health Organization (WHO), is aimed to examine the impact of the conflict in the Palestinian enclave on local children, families, and communities and to support the development of appropriate mental health and psycho-social services, said GCMHP in a statement.
The group said the WHO office handed over its request for entry permits for 80 experts and health professionals, mostly from Europe and North America, in late September, and 40 others submitted their applications via other channels.
In mid-October, the Israeli military authorities informed the WHO office that all requests were turned down, without giving any reason, according to the conference organizers. Miri Weingarten, a spokeswoman of the Physicians For Human Rights-Israel organization, said that her group contacted the relevant authorities and found that the denial was a political rather than security decision.
Meanwhile, the press conference also said that 16 doctors from Britain who planned to enter the poverty-stricken strip in November to treat local patients have also run into a closed door.
"We protest this last-minute decision by the Israeli authorities and regard it as a deliberate attempt to stop professional communication and exchange between the international medical community and Gaza medical professionals," the experts said in a statement released last week.
In response, Peter Lerner, spokesman of Israel's civil administration over the Palestinian territories, said over the weekend that Israel's current policy only allows entries for humanitarian resources and personnel.
"Since the Hamas terror organization's takeover in 2007, we have had a policy of allowing entrance to Gaza from Israel only for humanitarian treatment there, but not for conventions or assemblies," he said. "This event is not humanitarian but populistic and for propaganda, as one can see from the titles of the events, such as Gaza Palestinians being 'civilian victims of a siege.'"
With their requests denied, the experts said they would participate in the conference through long distance video conference facilities from the West Bank city of Ramallah, calling it really a shame that they cannot go into the victims and assess their conditions in person.
The international participants and some local activists are scheduled to hold a demonstration at the Erez border crossing on Sunday afternoon, when they should pass the crossing and enter the Gaza Strip according to their original plan.
Shortly after Hamas seized control of the strip, Israel tightened its blockade upon the Palestinian enclave, deteriorating the already wretched life of the some 1.5 million residents. The group said that over 200 patients trying to seek medical treatments outside Gaza has since been denied, and dozens of them died as a result.
Dr. Ghada Karmi from Britain's University pointed to what she termed "the international complicity," saying that the international community's inaction enables Israel to behave in a way that is "unacceptable at any standard."
"We cannot continue to allow Israel to behave in this way," said Karmi, while calling for an end to "the international complicity" and concerted efforts to pressure Israel to end the Gaza siege.
Source:Xinhua
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